Two-Tone
by signelchan
Summary: In a world where hair color is determined by the father, someone having two hair colors is means for concern. Unless it's Owain, who's too dense to realize that having such a trait is not means for a wild goose chase for who his second father is, so that he can pad his heroic backstory further.


For some kids, their hair color was worn as a testament to which brave and noble man had fathered them, to honor the great man who had cast his life aside not just fighting for the world, but for them as well. For others, their hair was a trait that separated them from their mother, showing everyone that despite everything, they were their father's child more than anything else. And then there was Owain, who was so passionate about heroes of legend that he considered himself one, a child who, when surrounded with his closest friends who all had one solid hair color to call their own, was gifted with not one, but two colors of hair.

It had never made much sense to him, or to anyone for that matter, how he could naturally have mostly dark hair with a bright blond patch in the front. His father looked at this with disgust, running a hand through his own dark hair every time he saw his child's mismatched colors, but it never stopped him from caring about his son, to the point that he laid down his life to make sure his son kept living. His mother loved her child no matter what, even if every time she paid close attention to his hair her heart would sink down into her stomach, and she did her best to make sure that no one ever made fun of him for being a bit different.

But aside from the people who picked on everyone, no one chose his hair as a target of teasing; in fact, a lot of his friends considered his hair color to be really cool, different from how the rest of them had just inherited one color from their fathers. His biggest supporter, as well of one of his closest friends, was the first person to point out that the two shades of color looked like they belonged to a hero, not just to a slightly-royal child. "I think it's the most heroic hair anyone has ever had, ever!" Cynthia chirped, excitedly running a brush through Owain's hair to style it one day. "Only the coolest heroes have cool hair colors, right?"

"That implies that none of our parents are 'cool heroes', which is nonsense! It's just how my hair works…but if you want to continue insisting that it's a 'cool hero' thing, I will gladly take the post of a hero of legend." Owain tilted his head back to look at Cynthia and how she was beaming at him, her eyes shining as she attempted to accommodate for how he'd moved to keep playing with his hair. "Er, Cynthia, mind stopping for just a moment to answer a question for me?"

She froze, pulling the brush far away from his head. "Sure thing, Owain!" she replied, still keeping her big smile. "What's going on?"

"Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have some other color disrupting your brilliant white hair? It would be just as, if not more, noticeable as my two colors, and I think it would be just as great a mark on you as it is on me." He watched as one of her hands went up to grab a spiraled pigtail, unraveling it to show the uniformly colored hair that made it up. As it cascaded back to its normal position, her eyes cast downward, looking away from him, and he sighed. "Sorry, didn't mean to hurt you, if I did."

"You didn't hurt me at all." Still looking away, she set the brush down on the floor and grabbed her other pigtail, doing the exact same thing to it as she had the first one. "I'm just thinking, what _if_ I had some cool second hair color hidden in there somewhere? Oh man, if I did and my parents were alive, I could show them that I'm just as much of a hero as you are!"

"You are a hero though, weird hair or no weird hair! You just don't have a list of defining heroic marks, that's all." He had said that to try and be supportive, but he knew that it came off more as gloating about his own heroic traits. He opened his mouth to correct himself, but a loud, ground-shaking roar in the distance cut him off, causing both him and Cynthia to jump up to their feet, her scooping up her little hairbrush before they were running off into the distance, trying to avoid the danger coming for them.

There might have been better places to discuss hair color than in an apocalyptic world, but finding the time to have that conversation elsewhere was going to be difficult, especially after crossing over into the past and finding the younger versions of their parents. Talking about his two-tone hair as a mark of heroism was one thing when he was discussing it with friends who had known him his whole life, but when it came to explaining it to his parents who hadn't already had to deal with it, it was another thing entirely. Or, rather, it would have been another thing if either parent would have asked about it. His father ignored it entirely, and his mother looked at it with wide eyes that seemed more worried than anything else.

"I don't get it," he said a few days after he'd joined up with the Shepherds, days filled with avoiding his parents just because they were so awkward around him. "Mother and Father weren't like this to me before, why are they like this now?"

"Because they aren't your actual parents, first of all," his cousin Lucina replied, not batting an eyelash at his confusion, "and secondly, because things are a lot different here than they were in our time. Don't hurt yourself too much trying to think about it."

He crossed his arms over his chest and pouted at her, as she smirked back at him. "Lucina, now is not the time for you to be cagey with me! I need to know why they are avoiding me like I'm the plague! Gods, am I a bad child even with my heroic quirks?"

"It's not that you're bad, hush." Lucina looked around, trying to find someone to pawn her cousin off on, but when she found that they were there alone, she sighed and accepted that she was the one who'd have to break this news to him. "It's just…concerning that you have two hair colors, one of which is most definitely your father's, and the other of which looks more like, ahem, someone else's."

Owain took a few seconds to let her explanation sink in, time during which he knew she was regretting saying anything. "So you're telling me that I have _two_ dads?" he finally asked, watching Lucina hang her head at the question. "Lucy, please, are you telling me that? That's the coolest thing ever if you are!"

"Listen, I'm not telling you that, but I'm not telling you anything else either. Rumors are born from strange occurrences such as this one, and I don't believe your mother or your father want to be around to listen to those accusations." Lucina turned to look away from her cousin, but he got up and walked around her to keep staring her in the face, silently prompting her to continue talking. "Owain, I'm not saying anything else. I've already said enough to get ideas in your head."

She was right, his overactive mind was already flooding with ideas and possibilities that could come from this revelation that he had been potentially gifted with two fathers. "I've got to tell all my friends about this!" he excitedly said, jumping around a bit before running off to find anyone who would listen to the new page in his backstory. Lucina, once she knew she was out of earshot, shook her head and muttered something about how he'd taken her out of context and most likely misinterpreted everything she'd just said.

Finding a friend to talk to about the news he'd just learned was a lot easier than he'd figured it would be, because if there was anyone who was always up for listening to a genuine Owain story, it was Cynthia. After he'd managed to excitedly spit out the words "two dads" while gesturing to his hair, she was cupping her face in her hands, enthralled with whatever else was to come. "We always knew that your hair meant you were a hero, but it meant that you had two dads too? Oh my gods Owain that's so cool!" she squealed. "So tell me more! Who's your other dad? How'd you find this out? I've got to know!"

"Lucina told me about the two father situation, although she neglected to say who the other dashing fellow was." He was rubbing his hair, mixing the blond patch in with the darker hair surrounding it a bit. "I can only assume that he's someone with light hair, due to that being what I didn't inherit from my own father, but I'm unsure if the man is a part of the Shepherds or if he's a gentleman of a village or…" His thought trailed off, his hand dropping from his hair to his chin, which he stroked. "Lucina did mention that rumors are born from these occurrences, so I'm inclined to think it's the first one."

"Why would you think it's the first one? Wouldn't more rumors come out of the idea of your mother sleeping with someone in a village than someone she fights beside?" Cynthia tilted her head, trying to make sense of Owain's logic. "Unless you're thinking that your second dad is someone who's, like, married."

He nodded eagerly, still stroking his chin. "That's exactly what I'm thinking! Cynthia, by the gods, how did you get to be so brilliant?"

"Oh, I just kind of tried my hardest," she replied, taken a bit by surprise when Owain leaned in close to her, gently placing the most tender of kisses on her cheek, which lit up at the touch of his lips. "Owain! What was that for? I didn't do anything worthy of that!"

"You're playing the part of heroine in my backstory quite well, and a great performance deserves the most special of thanks." She was still blushing, a clue that he should have taken not as her wanting more flattery, but rather that she was all-too-overjoyed that he'd chosen to kiss her. "Why, once we've figured out the curious case of my dual-colored hair, you might get more kisses much like that one!"

"Then let's get on the search!" she excitedly proclaimed, eager to get to the point where he'd get close enough to kiss her again. "How do we even go about this? Just kind of go up to every blond Shepherd and ask him if he loves your mom? Do you think you'd maybe look like your other dad? There's got to be an easy way to do this!"

He shook his head at all her suggestions, his eyes moving back and forth as he sorted his thoughts into an orderly line. "From what I remember, things I most certainly did not make up about the Shepherds for the sake of my stories, there are two men who fit the description of my second father. Two. And do you know what else those two men have, aside from blond hair like mine?" Cynthia now shook her head, honestly unsure of what Owain was talking about. "They have sons as well! Come on, Cynthia, we've got to go find some companions of ours for a little comparing!"

"Ooh, ooh, that sounds like it's going to be fun!" Clasping her hands together, Cynthia had exactly two seconds to get excited before Owain was actually dragging her off on his search, not wanting to waste any time getting to the bottom of the situation. He'd already spent his whole life knowing one dad, now he wanted to get to know the other one. Even if that second dad had no idea he was his dad.

Together the two rounded up as many of their friends as they could, Owain wanting all the witnesses and opinions as he tried to find out which of his friends had the dad who had been pulling double-duty as his second dad. A lot of those friends opted out of getting involved, most of them finding the whole idea incredibly stupid, but there were a few that stuck around to watch everything. "Okay, you're bound to be wondering why we've gathered you all here today," he said once everyone who was willing to be present had grouped up somewhere outside of base camp. "Well, you're probably not, because I explained it to everyone to drum up interest, but—"

"Can you just get on with the dumb thing you're doing here? Some of us were planning on using today to bond with our decent parent," Severa snapped, cutting him off as she flipped one of her long orange pigtails over her shoulder "I can't believe I actually agreed to being here for this over doing that."

"—that would be your own problem, Severa," Owain said, not batting an eye at her outburst. "Besides, we both know that you wanted to be present for when I get to gloat at you that I have something you don't."

She snorted, rolling her eyes at him. "No, trust me, I couldn't care less about you having two dads or whatever. Just makes you even weirder than I always thought you were."

"Will you two stop arguing so Owain can proceed with his demonstration here? I am quite curious as to how he will prove to everyone, as well as himself, that a second father exists in his genetic code. Perhaps it will be through magic?" Laurent, musing to himself, continued speaking as he pulled his hat off and ran fingers through his reddish hair. "It may be possible to cast a spell on one's hair to have it show where it was inherited from…"

"I'm not involving any magic here, don't you all worry!" Looking around at the sparse crowd that had gathered, Owain smiled to himself, before bringing fingers to his mouth and loudly whistling to get someone's attention. "Cynthia! Bring them over here! It's time!"

"You got it, Owain!" she cheerfully called from behind the trees she'd hidden behind, and when she came out to join everyone, she was followed by two blond boys, both of whom looked rather embarrassed to be seen by anyone, let alone the group waiting for them. "I make extra sure to brush their hair out nice and good for this!" She waved her trusty hairbrush around, nearly whacking herself in the face with it.

Turning to face the newcomers, Owain pulled down on the blond patch of his own hair, closing his eyes and silently praying to Naga that what he was about to do would solve one of the greatest mysteries about him. Once he was done, he looked at them both and sighed happily. "My two closest friends, comrades, sometimes worst enemies, I have brought you here today to settle a great mystery that's shrouded my existence since the day I was born. Are you two ready to assist me in this endeavor?"

"Did doing this really require Cynthia brushing out our hair?" Inigo asked, an expression of disgust on his face. "While I can say I appreciated the view she gave while straightening the front, she ruined the style I was going for in preparation to go out tonight. The ladies don't enjoy an unkempt man in this time as much as they did in the future."

"Oh hush, as if you'd be getting any woman to look at you twice anyway," Cynthia replied, pulling the top of her shirt up at what he'd said. "Besides, you're doing this for Owain and his two dad thing, remember?"

"Ya were explainin' that to us while brushin' our hair and I don't want any part of this anymore!" Brady cried, hiding his probably tear-filled eyes behind an arm. "Last thing I want is to think that anyone would cheat on Ma, especially not ol' Pop. I don't wanna have to be the one breakin' the news to her that he'd do that someday!" With how choked up Brady was getting as he spoke, he was clearly crying, and while Owain tended to take his friend's feelings into consideration, he had to ignore them on this occasion.

"I'm sure that, if it is your father who also had a hand in fathering me, your mother will be somewhat understanding. She does love my mother, after all." Still pulling on his hair, Owain looked at Brady and his own head of blond hair. "Now let's compare this, shall we?"

As he stepped closer to his friend, everyone else gathered around them, ready to watch and make the judgment for themselves. But they didn't even get close enough to have their hair right next to one another's before Laurent spoke up, his eyes focused on the different shades of blond before him. "They're clearly not the same," he said, crumpling up his hat in his hands. "Brady's is lighter, not as bright. You've reduced him to a crying mess for nothing."

"I'm afraid he's right, Owain," Cynthia said, wrapping an arm around Brady to give him a side hug. "I'm so sorry we did this to you, Brady. Can you forgive us for making you think your mom and dad weren't going to always be together?"

"I didn't think _that_ , not in those exact words," Brady snapped, sniffling as he did. "I just got scared that Pop was gonna start sleepin' 'round with Owain's mom, 's all."

"Er, okay, guess we move on to comparing me and Inigo then. Sorry about that, Brady. I'll make it up to you somehow, I suppose." With a shrug, Owain's attention turned solely to the other friend of his standing there, taking a step closer to him to get the comparison started. Because of this, he didn't notice that no one was paying attention to him, everyone there focusing on trying to perk Brady back up from being so distraught.

The only exception to that was Inigo, who was staring down Owain with a displeased look. "I cannot believe you're sending everyone on this wild chase, everyone knows it wouldn't be my father who would also have helped father you. A man of status like my father would do no such thing." He straightened his back, trying to get any sort of height on Owain. "Just let me get back to my wooing of the ladies before they forget about me."

"I can't let you do that, not until we know we're not brothers or something!" The words felt weird coming out of Owain's mouth, and he stopped all forward movement, flicking his tongue a few times. "Ew, you know what, on second thought I'm going to accept your defense of your father and his status. There's no way he would be my father as well. You are dismissed from your duties here."

"Did you just say he's dismissed? Without even checking?" Unaware that he'd been overheard, hearing Yarne repeating what he'd just said sent a lone shiver down Owain's spine. "Man, my dad was going to show me how he takes care of little bunnies he finds, and I said no to him for this?"

"We didn't even get to see a fight or anything. Can you say la-a-a-ame?" Severa threw a playful punch at the nearest shoulder to her, which happened to be Yarne's. As the Taguel rubbed at where he'd been hit, giving small apologies to her for being the bearer of bad news, she looked straight over at Owain and glared at him. "I don't know what your problem was, hyping this up as something amazing and being a letdown, but next time you want to do something stupid, don't involve us all, okay?"

She was the first to walk away, followed by everyone else one-by-one, until it was just Owain and Cynthia left standing there. "I…don't understand how I didn't find out who my second father is here today," Owain said, grabbing hold of his blond patch once more. "If my hair doesn't match Brady's, and if Inigo's dad is too good to be my dad, who could it be?"

"I don't know, Owain, maybe it really is some village guy. Or, ooh! Maybe it's like Yarne! He's only got a little bit of hair like his dad's, right?" Motioning towards the top of her head, the same location that their rabbit friend had a patch of purple hair, Cynthia waved her other arm in excitement. "Maybe your patch is, like, fur or something like his! Maybe you've got a tiny bit of Taguel blood in you!"  
"That would make for quite the heroic story, the slightly-Taguel hero of legend returning back in time to bring an end to a fell dragon's reign, but something tells me that's not quite it." He shrugged, letting go of his hair. "The truth will come to us someday, I'm sure. Maybe when the me of this timeline is brought into existence! It may be a long while to wait, but the conclusion to this story arc will be awaited with baited breath."

"I love when you get all excited about your backstory," she said, putting her hands to her cheeks once more and sighing dreamily. "Just like a real hero."

He grinned, taking the compliment and running with it. "Why of course I'm a real hero, I've got two fathers that sired me into life!" Despite never having been told that by any means, that was the story he was going to take to his grave, even if there was a simple explanation that would have told him that it was untrue. It would only take speaking with his mother with any of his friends present, so that they could take one look at her hair and his blond patch and making the connection that they were the same color. But men simply didn't inherit hair color from their mothers, did they?

* * *

 **A/N: I love genetics and I hate how Fire Emblem simplifies hair color genetics so much. So why not break genetics even further?**

 **Happy birthday, original FE:A waifu (and original Fates waifu as well)!**


End file.
